Unpleasant symptoms. Does anyone else relate to this?

Hi everyone,
I posted this earlier this morning in another forum, but unfortunately got no replies, so I hope some people here recognize this.
I stopped the pill at the end of November on my gynecologist's advice. Having taken it for so long, my hormone balance seemed completely thrown off. Because of this, I thought I might be pregnant. After stopping, I felt much better after about a month!
For info: my first cycle lasted 36 days.
My first natural period started on January 4.
I had unprotected sex on February 4... I thought it was okay because my period wouldn't last much longer... I didn't realize that a second cycle could apparently be longer than the first. Oops.. (a baby would be welcome, just not at the right time)
Eventually got my period on February 15. (Maybe TMI, but: this period was long and varied a lot from day to day between heavy red bleeding without clots and old brown blood.) Naturally, I looked it up again and read about implantation bleeding. This seemed unlikely to me, since it wasn't just a few drops like described. But after my period, I still have light menstrual cramps every day. Also, my areolas are swollen, and I thought that would go away after the period. Since the symptoms persisted, I took a pregnancy test this morning and it was negative.
So my question.... what could this be?
Is this related to coming off the pill?